Khaled Nabhan, rummaging through the rubble of his destroyed house, picks up the baby that belongs to his grandson and kisses it.
Toys and memories are all that remains of his beloved grandchildren, 3-year-old Reem and 5-year-old Tarek, who were killed while they slept in their beds last week.
According to Nabhan, their houses were destroyed as a result of an Israeli airstrike near the Al Nuseyrat refugee camp in the south of Gaza. Nabhan has just managed to return after the cessation of hostilities.
Speaking to CNN from his ruined house, Nabhan described the last evening he spent with his grandchildren, breaking into tears as he recalled how they begged him to take him outside and play. He said he rejected the offer because of the danger from Israeli air strikes.
“They always want fruit, but there is no fruit because of the war,” he said. He had a tangerine in his hand, which he gave to Reem as a treat, but she never had the chance to eat it. “I could only find them these tangerines.”
The family was sleeping during the air raid. Khaled said he woke up screaming for his children and grandchildren and struggled to walk through the darkness and rubble to find them.
“I couldn’t find anyone, they were buried under all this rubble,” he said, standing on a bed in a room full of debris.
Nabhan showed CNN videos and photos of the family in happier times, of children singing, laughing and playing. In one clip, Nabhan throws his grandson into the air and catches him while Reem giggles with delight. In another image, Nabhan grins as she rides her bike, her granddaughter sitting on the handlebars wearing a beautiful yellow dress and white flowers in her hair.
He said the two are inseparable. The family lived with their grandfather because their father was working abroad, and he was Reem’s whole world.
He said his favorite game was pulling his beard and he would pull his pig tails.
“If you let go, I’ll quit,” he says, giggling in one video.
Nabhan showed CNN a worn-out bedroom in their Gaza home where his daughter Maysa, Reem and Tarek’s mother, was sleeping when the house collapsed. He and his sister survived but were seriously injured.
Speaking to CNN from the home of a relative in Gaza where she was recovering, Maysa said she remembered screaming and something heavy pinning her down.
“I heard Reem screaming next to me, I said there was something heavy on me, I couldn’t reach you. “I said my last prayers and then I woke up in the hospital,” he said.
Maysa woke up with the news that her little children were gone. Their lifeless bodies were found together under the rubble.
“I was numb in the hospital. I hugged them, I wanted to hug them as much as possible. No matter how much I hugged them, I couldn’t get enough,” said Maysa.
For nearly seven weeks, most people in the Gaza Strip have been trying to survive by focusing on the basics: finding shelter, escaping fighting, and gaining access to food and water.
The pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas has given many families in Gaza the chance to go out, buy supplies and return home to collect their belongings and even bury the bodies of their loved ones.
For many Gazans like Nebhan, the ceasefire has deepened the heartache as they take stock of their new, devastated environment. Weeks of airstrikes and clashes have devastated entire neighborhoods, and many can now see the full extent of the destruction for the first time.
More than 14,800 Palestinians, including 6,000 children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank, which gets its data from Hamas. -He manages the health authorities in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Gaza had “turned into a graveyard for children”, adding: “The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. “This is a humanitarian crisis.”
His comments came four weeks after Israel declared war on Hamas; It follows the Islamist militant group’s deadly terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, which left 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, and nearly 240 people kidnapped and taken back to Gaza. Israel since the country was founded in 1948.
The joy of the temporary ceasefire came as hostages released by Hamas under the agreement reached last week finally returned to Israel and were reunited with their families in heartbreaking scenes. Others are still anxiously awaiting news about the fate of their loved ones, including multiple children held captive by militants in Gaza.
Grieving grandfather Nabhan said that his grandchildren were too young to understand the war in which they lived and died. He said that he was not a warrior and that his family had nothing to do with the war.
Now their grandchildren will never be able to dress, play, or eat their favorite foods.
Nabhan was seen around the world last week in a widely shared video that showed him in a painful moment as he kissed his lifeless 3-year-old grandson goodbye.
“I would kiss her on her cheeks, her nose, and she would giggle,” he said. “I kissed him, but he didn’t wake up.”
In another social media video, Nabhan fixes Tarek’s hair while the bodies of two children are prepared for burial in white shrouds.
“I combed her hair the way she always asked me to, like a photo that she would always show me,” Nabhan said. “She loved her hair like this, now it’s gone.”
Nabhan goes through his damaged belongings from his dilapidated house and collects armfuls of colorful toys; The loss is etched into the lines of his face.
“I was hoping, hoping, that they were just sleeping,” he said. “But they weren’t sleeping, they left.
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